‘Stockpile toilet paper!’ Japanese urged to buy more tissues to avoid being wiped out in a quake

Cautious Japanese are making sure they won’t be literally caught with their pants down next time an earthquake rumbles into town. They are being told to stock up on toilet paper, as well as essentials like food and water.

The government and toilet paper manufacturers companies are
joining forces with the PR slogan “Let’s stockpile toilet
paper!” as part of Disaster Prevention Day in the
earthquake-prone country.

“After running out of toilet paper, people start using
tissue, and that could clog up precious workable toilets,”
said Toshiyuki Hashimoto, an official in charge of paper
products.

Significantly, 41 percent of Japanese toilet paper is produced in
the nation’s most earthquake-prone areas, such as the Shizuoka
prefecture in central Japan, where there is more than an 80
percent chance of a major offshore quake in the next 30 years.

Based on what happened after the 2011 tsunami, which crippled the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, killed thousands of
people, left tens of thousands homeless and caused $36.4 billion
worth of damage – a lack of toilet paper also became a serious
issue.

Hoarding toilet paper also occurred during the oil crisis of
1973, with one 83-year-old woman breaking her leg in the frenzy
of people grabbing as many rolls as possible.

Toilet paper was quickly added to the list of items needed in an
emergency, along with food, water, first aid kits and portable
toilets under the government’s Basic Disaster Management Plan.

“Along with food, toilet paper was among the first items that
disappeared from the store shelves during the disaster, even
outside disaster-hit areas,” said Hashimoto, the
government’s toilet paper tsar.

Japan takes being prepared for disasters seriously, especially
since the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and hundreds
of thousands of people take part in the annual Sept. 1 Disaster
Prevention Day drill.

The instructions to stock up comes as no surprise because of the
strong tradition of toilet etiquette in Japan.

The Japanese have Toilegami, which is origami for toilet paper,
where some up market Japanese hotels fold toilet paper like table
napkins. The Japanese have also invented the so-called Enterprise
electronic toilet, which has a button called the “sound
princess”, which plays a little tune to conceal the
embarrassing noises you might be making.